CSR expands use of Virage Logic IP

United Kingdom-based CSR, a global supplier of single chip wireless communications products, is set on using Virage Logic's IP to facilitate its next-generation technology. CSR's BlueCore and UniFi product lines will be designed using Virage Logic's Area, Speed and Power (ASAP) Memory, Self-Test and Repair (STAR) Memory and STAR Yield Accelerator products.

Virage Logic enables companies such as CSR to proceed with confidence through increasingly advanced lithography process nodes. For next-generation Bluetooth product offerings, CSR is using Virage Logic ASAP memories at 90-nanometer (nm) and will migrate to 65nm where Virage Logic has developed a customised ultra-high density ROM compiler to address unique application requirements.

"We are very pleased to be selected as the trusted IP partner for a market-leading company like CSR, whose ICs are integrated into the majority of Bluetooth devices on the market today," said Brani Buric, Virage Logic's vice president for product marketing and strategic foundry relationships. "With this partnership, Virage Logic's IP solutions will provide CSR with critical design and manufacturing advantages as they extend their market dominance through a new generation of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices."

What is Bluetooth technology?
A technology for wireless personal area networks, which provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as cell phones, laptops, PCs and digital cameras via a short range radio frequency.

What does IP stand for?
(1) Internet Protocol is a basic communication language or protocol widely used in the Internet or a private network. It is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork.
(2) Intellectual Property. A product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property (literary or artistic works) and ideational property (patents, appellations of origin, business methods and industrial processes).

What is a semiconductor?
A class of materials, for instance silicon and germanium, whose electrical properties lie between those of conductors (such as copper and aluminum) and insulators (such as glass and rubber). It displays relatively high resistance in pure state and much lower resistance when it contains small amounts of certain impurities.